Posted: December 19, 2005

Athletics: Ekiden Threepeat For Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo

From David Monti

© 2005 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

By Brendan Reilly with Ken Nakamura

GIFU CITY, Japan (18-Dec) - For the third straight year, and fifth time in the past six years, Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo has taken the top women's distance running team prize in Japan. With forecasts of heavy snow threatening cancellation of the 25th anniversary running of the All-Japan's Corporate Women's Ekiden Championship, it was only confirmed two hours before the noon start that the race would take place.

As has become their pattern, the Mitsui women each ran solidly and tough, with only one of the six team members finishing lower than fourth in her leg. Challenges had been expected from the Kyocera, Shiseido, and Hokuren sponsored teams, but as the race wore on, Mitsui inexorably put all challengers to rest.

Recent high school grad, Phyllis Ongori of Keyna, blazed a new record of 20:06 for the opening 6.6 kilometers to give her Hokuren team a 27-second advantage. Although teammates Saori Nejo and Yukiko Akaba held Hokuren's lead, Mitsui steadily placed themselves in position to blow away the field over the final three legs. Former Asian marathon recordholder Yoko Shibui passed off the sash after her 10-K third leg to teammate Shiori Ishiyama in third place, and within a few hundred meters, Ishiyama passed the final two pretenders on her way to a fastest leg of 12:50 to put Mitsui in the lead. Miki Ohira took the ekiden's equivalent of the MVP award with a remarkable 36:49 time for the 11.6k sixth leg, stretching Mitsui's gap to an insurmountable 1:28 when she passed off to anchor Miki Oyama. Oyama broke the tape in 2:13:55, the third-fastest time in this championship's history. No word yet on whether this is a WR for ekidens run in a snowstorm.

Tenmaya department store's club rebooted this year with four athletes age 19 or 20, yet surprised many with their runner-up finish. It was the seventh time in the past eight years the club has been among the six award-winning teams.

World Championships marathon gold medalist Hiromi Taniguchi (Tokyo, 1991) enjoyed his finest team success as a coach, with his Oki Electric women quietly taking the bronze medal. As the snow thickened, runners were barely visible across the track, and by the time the final runner of 28th-place Aichi Kikai came across the line, Gifu was in a full-fledged blizzard.

Spikemarks:
Although Mitui's Ohira won the ekiden's equivalent of the MVP award for her 36:49 effort on the fifth leg to virtually seal the win, the run of the day was on that leg by Wacoal's Kayoko Fukushi. Japan's only sub-15:00 5,000m runner and only 5/10 track runner approaching international levels these days, Fukushi ran through the snow, wind, and miserable conditions of that 11.6K in 36:13 (3:07/km), the second-fastest time ever for that leg. Along the way, she boosted her Wacoal team from 17th place to 3rd...37-year old veteran Harumi Hiroyama helped her Shiseido club salvage the day by posting second-fastest time for the 6.595 anchor leg, bringing Shiseido from 10th to 4th at the finish.

RESULTS:
 1) Mitsui-Sumitomo  2:13:55 
 2) Tenmaya  2:15:46 
 3) Oki Electric 2:15:51 
 4) Shiseido  2:16:00 
 5) Kyocera  2:16:14
 6) Hokuren 2:16:26
 7) Shimamura 2:16:30 
 8) Wacoal 2:16:36 
 9) Hitachi 2:16:39 
10) Panasonic 2:16:40 
11) 18 Bank  2:17:04 
12) Sekisui Chemical 2:17:04 
13) Dai-ichi Life 2:17:58 
14) Noritz  2:18:11 
15) Kyudenko 2:18:14 

Stage 1  6.6 km
1) Phyllis Ongori (Hokuren/KEN)  20:06 
2) P Wanguru (Kyudenko/KEN)  20:33 
3) Yurika Nakamura (Tenmaya)  20:33 
4) Yukari Soh (Asahi Kasei) 20:34 
5) Mika Yoshikawa (Panasonic) 20:35

Stage 2  3.3 km
1) Saori Nejyo (Hokuren)  10:22 
2) Ayumi Hashimoto (Mitsui-Sumitomo) 10:25 
3) Akiko Nakata  (Hitachi)  10:27 
4) Misaki Onishi (Sekisui)  10:29 
5) Akemi Ozaki (Shiseido)  10:33 

Stage 3  10 km 
1) Evelyn Wambui (Yutaka Tech/KEN) 31:37 
2) Ruth Wanjiru (Hitachi/KEN)  31:53 
3) Madoka Ogi (18 Bank) 32:09 
4) Yoko Shibui (Mitsui-Sumitomo) 32:13 
5) Yumi Sato (Shiseido) 32:15 

Stage 4  4.1 km 
1) Shiori Ishiyama (Mitsui-Sumitomo) 12:50 
2) Megumi Yamashita (Wacoal)  12:58 
3) Ai Yamamoto (Oki) 13:00 
4) Yuko Shimizu (Sekisui) 13:00 
5) Chieko Yamasaki (Tenmaya) 13:02 

Stage 5   11.6 km
1) Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal)  36:13 
2) Miki Ohira (Mitsui-Sumitomo) 36:49 
3) Kaori Oyama (Noritz)  37:09
4) Yoko Miyauchi (Oki)  37:11 
5) Megumi Oshima (Shimamura)  37:21 

Stage 6   6.595 km
1) Tomoko Ishii (Kyocera)  20:46 
2) Harumi Hiroyama (Shiseido) 20:57 
3) Hiroko Miyauchi (Oki) 21:00 
4) Miki Oyama (Mitsui-Sumitomo) 21:00 
5) Yuka Izumi (Tenmaya) 21:23